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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29727750">Slumber Party</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/stxrdrifter/pseuds/stxrdrifter'>stxrdrifter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Deck of 52, Jokers Removed [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Persona 5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Fluff, Royal Spoilers, Sleepovers, asexual futaba, gay nonsense, promise list</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:47:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,768</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29727750</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/stxrdrifter/pseuds/stxrdrifter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sumire needs her phone fixed, and it'll take a while.</p><p>[Inspired by <a href="https://meruz.tumblr.com/post/617612923538407424">this</a> and <a href="https://meruz.tumblr.com/post/617612920609718272">this</a>]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sakura Futaba/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Deck of 52, Jokers Removed [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2184840</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Slumber Party</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Huge thanks to my friend Dana for being my editor on this.</p><p>This was originally written for a oneshot collection fic, but I've decided to separate it into individual works and stick them in a series because I actually never read oneshot collections despite how good some of them might be and I'm just going to assume nobody else does.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“How long do you think it’ll take?”</p><p>“Unfortunately, it will take four hours.”</p><p>“<em> FOUR HOURS </em>??”</p><p>“... Yeah. And most of that will be sitting around because it will be factory resetting itself over and over again.”</p><p>“Fantastic.”</p><p> </p><p>Futaba loved repair and modding work. She liked taking apart electronics and putting them back together, fixing their bugs and reworking them to do other things. She had a small but growing collection of modded GameBoys that she’d installed backlights in, and a few custom made cartridges for the SNES that could read ROMs. She’d done bug fixes for Android and Apple phones alike, done commission work for homebrew mods on various gaming consoles, and one time whipped up a functional NES emulator.</p><p>This would not be like her other repairs or mods though. Due to the nature of the glitchiness, all she could do was remove all the data from the phone and back it up on her personal computer before factory resetting it a few times, hoping for the best. She didn’t have a gimmick or app to solve this, no coding or fixing. It was a firmware error. </p><p> </p><p>“Alright, first we have to pull everything from the phone. I assume you like the things that are on here? Your pictures, music, whatnot.” Futaba explained.</p><p>“Yeah, don’t delete anything please.” She was focused on her screen, so she couldn’t see Sumire’s face, but she could imagine it wasn’t a particularly pleased one.</p><p>“I don’t intend to, don’t worry. This should be the fastest part of the pro-” Futaba cut herself off when she looked at the count of all the data she would be moving.</p><p>4,903 photos. 544 videos. 3,054 songs.</p><p>
  <em> Holy fuck, Sumire. </em>
</p><p>“Why do you have so many pictures??? Why are so many of them birds and cats?? Wha… I…” Futaba was completely awestruck. She fell back in her chair in defeat. Never had she seen so many files on a single phone before. The numbers were twice as high as she thought could possibly even fit on this phone, so she checked to see if there was an external drive in the phone. Nope. That was base hardware. </p><p>“Sorry! I never have time to go through and delete them, and I like animals, okay??” </p><p>“This is going to take longer than the actual resetting!” She selected the files and dragged them into a folder on her desktop to see how long it would take.</p><p>“Five HOURS???” She yelled.</p><p>“Sorry…” Sumire sighed. Futaba collapsed on her desk. This was going to take forever, and while she liked Sumire, she didn’t know how well she would hold out for nine hours straight. Sumire needed her phone, seeing as it was her means of getting home thanks to Japan’s newest installation of phone-based train passes, and Sumire just <em> happened </em> to leave her wallet at home that day.</p><p>“Well… it’s a Sunday, and I don’t have anything else to do today, so we can just… hang out here I suppose?” Futaba spun her chair. Sumire looked almost like she had done this on purpose, and Futaba looked at her in complete and utter disbelief.</p><p>“Sumire, it’s four o’clock. By the time this is done, it will be one in the morning, probably later. How will you get home?!” </p><p>“Maybe I could… sleep over?” Futaba’s eyes lit up. She scrambled over her desk, looking for the promise list she made this month. </p><p>“What are you-”</p><p>“Ah-HAH! I found it!” She held the promise list up in the air, and showed it to Sumire. “Promise #3: Have my first sleepover. This is perfect!” She jumped up and began dancing around her room before pulling a confused-looking Sumire into a hug. “Thank you, Sumire. This list is really important to me, so thank you for helping me complete it.”</p><p>“Oh, uh, not a problem Futaba-Senpai!” Sumire said.</p><p>After a couple seconds, Futaba began blushing, and decided to let go of Sumire. She bounced back to her desk and spent a couple minutes writing up some code. Despite the fact that most of this process was going to be sitting around, she didn’t want to get distracted while doing basically nothing and forget to press all the necessary buttons, so she opted to automate the process.</p><p>“Whatcha doing?” Sumire asked. Futaba didn’t answer. “Right, focus mode. Guess I’ll wait. Might as well let dad know I’ll be… right. My phone is on the desk. Being reset.” Futaba could hear Sumire rocking back and forth on her feet, but she was too focused to speak.</p><p>She’d always been like this. No matter what it was, anything from video games to even walking sometimes, whenever she was focused she became unresponsive. Speaking diverted attention, and she needed to direct all of it to what she was doing or she might make a mistake and lose a life or her balance. She was unapologetic about it; in fact she considered it one of her defining quirks. Thankfully she had an understanding friend group who didn’t particularly mind and grew to adapt.</p><p>After a few minutes of menial code work, Futaba leaned back in the chair for the nineteenth time since starting. “And done! I just set up some code that will automatically perform the resets for us so we don’t have to do anything! It’ll completely automate the process.”</p><p>Sumire smiled, a little confused. “That’s great! I think?”</p><p>“It means we don’t have to do anything! We can just leave everything here and do something else! Wanna watch a movie?” Futaba was amped up. Ever since the first one with Akira, she’d been making monthly promise lists to help her get more socially adept before she started school in April. She always got excited when she would be crossing one off, though this was definitely a new high for her. She adored spending time with Sumire, and despite the previous doubt of <em> nine hours </em> with the girl, she felt like she could pull it off if it were for the promise list.</p><p>Sumire giggled. “Alright, Futaba-Senpai. Shall we?” Sumire extended her arm as though they were in an old-fashioned romance film (or a modern indie film parodying the trope). Futaba took her arm graciously, and they were on their way.</p><p> </p><p>The moment they entered the theatre, Futaba began shaking. There were a lot of people, and while she thought she was used to the crowds, she wasn’t as good as she thought she was. The theatre was a whole other beast from places like Kichijoji and Akihabara, where the people are gathered for the same thing she is. Here, it was a dungeon of high level demons, all vastly different from each other. Succubi and Incubi sweeping up the romance tickets, adorable yet menacing Sirens taking each other to see the latest animated movie (the only available animated film was Your Name, for whatever reason. Futaba considered the film.)</p><p>Her eyes darted all over the place, and her armpits became sweaty as she trembled. Without warning, she felt a soft hand grip her own. She looked up to see Sumire’s smile, and down to see her holding her hand. Futaba smiled back.</p><p>“Thanks, Sumi.”</p><p>“Not a problem, Futaba-Senpai,” she said softly.</p><p>“Just Futaba, please.” </p><p>“Whatever you say, Futaba!” </p><p>The girls walked over to the kiosk and bought their tickets, grabbed some snacks (Futaba had to splurge for the candy because she didn’t like popcorn), and took their seats.</p><p> </p><p>The theatre was completely empty. </p><p>Granted, it was a Sunday, and they were seeing a movie that had already been in theatres for a while, and it was pretty late in the evening, but Futaba still thought it was strange. She took complete advantage of it and did not censor herself.</p><p>During fight scenes, she bounced in her seat and threw her own punches; she cracked jokes relished in the answering giggles, and during all the scary parts she would grab Sumire in mock fear, and was treated to soft genuine comfort. She blushed at that. </p><p>The movie ended.</p><p>“That was great!” Futaba cheered as they left the theatre. </p><p>“Your jokes and fighting were great too, Futaba!” Sumire replied. “I couldn’t tell if you were actually scared or not, so I tried to comfort you genuinely, I hope that was okay.”</p><p>Futaba thought about how Sumire patted her on her head. Previously, that was reserved for her mother (except for the one time Akira did it and she screamed). She tried desperately not to blush. “Yeah, it was good. Thank you, Sumi,” Futaba said. “My mom used to do it when I was a kid, and… well, it’s not the same with you. B-but it’s still really nice! I really appreciate it! It… uhh…” </p><p>“It’s okay, Futaba. I understand.” Sumire’s eyes were so kind. “Oh, by the way… uh…” Sumire raised her hand, which was still linked with Futaba’s. Futaba let go quickly.</p><p>“Oh! Sorry, I guess I forgot…” Futaba muttered.</p><p>“No! No no no, it’s completely fine,” Sumire replied. She grabbed Futaba’s hand again. “I don’t mind holding your hand, I actually quite like it, if that’s okay.”</p><p>Futaba’s heart rate increased ever so slightly. Sumire was so kind and Futaba just wanted to relish in all of it. She hoped Akira wouldn’t mind if she had a backup key item.</p><p>She knew he wouldn’t, but she hoped anyways.</p><p> </p><p>They got back to Sojiro’s house, and Sumire called home to let her family know what was going on. From what Futaba could hear (she had bugged the phone but decided it would be polite not to eavesdrop), they were pretty understanding. She was quite relieved, as based on her experience with spontaneous plans, she didn’t expect her parents to handle it well.</p><p>“They said I could stay!” Sumire cheered. Futaba didn’t know how to react so she cheered in response. They heard the front door open and turned like deer in headlights.</p><p>“Don’t mind me, keep celebrating! I’m just picking up something.” A wild Sojiro appeared!</p><p>“Sojiro! Is it alright if Sumire sleeps over tonight? I’m trying to fix her phone but it’s going to take all night and she can’t get home without it so-”</p><p>“Woah woah hey! A sleepover? That’s a first.” Sojiro jests, earning a scowl. “Yes, that’s fine. If you’re eating at the cafe though, I’m still charging you!” He wandered back out, whatever it was he’d grabbed held in his hand.</p><p>“Sounds good, Sakura-san!” Sumire chimed behind her. Futaba felt her stomach rumble. The movie they watched was rather long, and they hadn’t eaten since lunch. </p><p>“Wanna go get some dinner? I can cover for you if you need,” Futaba offered. She had no intention of actually paying, rather puppy-dog eyeing her way out of a bill; however, considering she had a friend with her, she decided it would be better to just foot the bill. Sumire would resist anyway.</p><p>“Yeah… my phone has all my bank card stuff. I’ll pay you back once it’s all fixed up!” Sumire rubbed the back of her neck.</p><p>“Alright then, guess it’s a date! Let’s go get some curry!!”</p><p> </p><p>The short walk was somehow still eventful. Futaba had been on a confidence high lately, choosing to make Sumire laugh by dancing her way to the cafe and singing a little jig, rather than her usual suspicious slinking around.</p><p>They entered the cafe, and Makoto was sitting at the bar reading a book while Akira prepared her coffee. Makoto peered up at the two girls and cracked a smile, which Futaba returned.</p><p>“Hello, Makoto-Senpai, Akira-Senpai! Good to see you here!” Sumire chirped. </p><p>Futaba chuckled. She had seen firsthand how unworthy Akira was of that title. The fool. He merely nodded in their direction, miming a hat tip. </p><p>Makoto gave a small but kind wave. She looked like she was happy.</p><p>“Watcha reading, Makoto?” Futaba questioned, peering at the cover of her book.</p><p>“I’m reading Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft. I was thinking about your Persona and decided to delve into some of the history around it. I also picked up Azathoth; I’m sure I don’t need to explain why.”</p><p>“Good fiction, bad man,” Futaba commented.</p><p>“Very interesting, Makoto-Senpai! I’m sure you’d like to get back to your book, so please excuse us,” Sumire apologized. Makoto smiled in response, dismissing Sumire’s worries.</p><p>Futaba and Sumire took a seat at the table farthest from the window, sitting opposite each other. Sojiro was washing dishes, and turned to see the pair. “Took you long enough! What can I get you girls?”</p><p>“The usual please, Sakura-san!” Sumire said politely. </p><p>“Hmm… cook’s choice, if you please!” Futaba requested.</p><p>“Coming right up!” </p><p>The two girls continued chatting about various things - school, music, video games, gymnastics, meets, anything one or both of them were interested in - until Sojiro placed their meals in front of them. They continued conversing and eating until they were interrupted by the bell of the door. They peered around to see who it was, and saw Haru enter, kissing Makoto on the cheek. They both sat back in their seats hurriedly until they heard Makoto say her farewells and the bell of the door again.</p><p>The two sighed. “I feel like I just intruded on something,” Sumire worried.</p><p>“Nah, I’m sure it’s fine. They’ve been like that a lot lately, I’m pretty sure they’re dating. Took ‘em long enough if you ask me.” Futaba took a sip from her coffee. She’d noticed Haru and Makoto giving each other looks since they first infiltrated Okumura’s palace.</p><p>“Oh, I didn’t know Makoto-Senpai or Haru-Senpai liked women like that,” Sumire noted. Her tone was flat, similar to the tone of someone who was about to say that they ‘didn’t believe in that’ and that ‘it was a sin against god’ or whatever nonsense. She didn’t drop the titles, though, so maybe not. Futaba decided to run a test.</p><p>“Speaking of liking women… um… I think I might like women like that too, if that’s okay,” Futaba said. Not a lie, she had been pondering her attraction; however it wasn’t exactly in the forefront of her mind. She cared less for romance and whatnot and more for that connection of friendship and trust.</p><p>Sumire blushed. “Oh! Definitely, sorry if I sounded like I was… unsupportive. I’ve just…” She looked down at the table. “So many people at school say so many mean things about people like that, so it just kinda… caught me off guard is all. Hearing someone saying something nice about people like that.” She paused. “Seeing it be real and not as bad as they say.”</p><p>Futaba was speechless. Sumire was blushing <em> very hard </em> and she wanted to believe it was something to do with her curry, but she couldn’t be sure. </p><p>“Hey, why don’t we change the subject?” Futaba offered. She didn’t like seeing her friend so melancholic, and wanted to cheer her up. This was visibly a touchy subject, and she wasn’t going to push it if Sumire was uncomfortable.</p><p>“No, I don’t mind. Truth is… um…” She looked up at Futaba. “I think I uh… like girls a bit too. If that’s okay.”</p><p>“Sumi, it’s <em> obviously </em> okay. I just admitted that to you, why wouldn’t I be okay with it? I’m not a hypocrite.”</p><p>Sumire giggled. “Sorry, you’re right. Hey, uh… Sojiro-san is going to have to close the shop soon, should we get going?”</p><p>“Sounds like a plan.”</p><p>Futaba paid the bill and the girls made their way back to the house.</p><p> </p><p>For the remainder of the evening, the two spent their time playing games and watching cartoons as though they were ten years old again. Sumire was surprisingly good at the games they played, which made Futaba question what Sumire’s childhood was like. They watched some cartoons which were definitely made for 10-year-olds but had a large adult following, though surprisingly for wholesome reasons.</p><p>Sumire accidentally spoiled the ending for one Futaba hadn’t finished and she seriously considered leaking all of Sumire’s bank information.</p><p> </p><p>As the evening died down, the two girls’ energies died down with it. Sumire made tea for them both (despite Futaba’s protests that she should do it because she’s the host), which was unsurprisingly delicious, and the girls wrapped themselves up in blankets. </p><p>“Soo… what now?” Futaba asked. </p><p>“Hm? What do you mean?” Sumire looked puzzled. “Wait… this is your first sleepover, isn’t it?”</p><p>Futaba nodded. “I didn’t really… have many friends growing up, so yeah.”</p><p>“I’m happy to be your guide!” Sumire did as best a bow she could while curled up in a blanket with a mug of tea in her hands. Futaba giggled. “Well, it’s 11:30pm, so reasonably we should head to sleep soon… but first we have to play some games.”</p><p>Futaba was confused. “We already played games, you want to play <em> more? </em>”</p><p>“Not video games, silly. Games like <em> Would you Rather? </em> , <em> Truth or Dare </em>, that sort of thing.”</p><p>“Ohhhhh, gotcha. Well alright then. Would you rather… Have to use Mara as your persona or Incubus?” Futaba grinned mischievously.</p><p>“Ewww… don’t remind me of those awful creatures. Incubus, at least he’s got a human body.” Sumire cringed in her seat, while Futaba quietly chanted ‘Dick Chariot’. “Your turn, would you rather… Never play video games again or never watch Neo Featherman again?”</p><p>Futaba gasped. “Evil! Making me decide between my two favorite things!” Sumire giggled adorably. “Neo Featherman, there’s too many video games to give up for him. It’s not worth it.”</p><p>“Interesting…” Sumire rubbed her chin.</p><p>“Would you rather give up gymnastics or shave your head?” Futaba thought she had Sumire on the ropes with that one.</p><p>“Shave my head, easy. If I shave my head then there’s no hair to get in my face while I’m doing my gymnastics.” Futaba scowled, to which Sumire grinned evilly.</p><p> </p><p>The games continued on until it dissolved into meaningless banter, and then into giggles, which too faded. The girls prepared for bed, then went up to Futaba’s bedroom where Sojiro had prepared a futon on the floor for Sumire. They both tucked themselves in, and Futaba turned off the lights, leaving only her glow-in-the-dark stars shining.</p><p>The room was quiet. Futaba couldn’t sleep; her mind raced with excitement from the day. She assumed Sumire was also already asleep, so she tried to stay quiet.</p><p>“Hey, Futaba?” </p><p>“Yeah?” Futaba rolled over to face Sumire.</p><p>“How did you… how did you know you liked girls?” She asked. Futaba’s face turned red. She thanked the low light of the room.</p><p>“Well… I saw Makoto and Haru. They’ve been dating a while, and when I first saw Makoto kiss Haru, I thought… I want to do that.”</p><p>“You want to kiss Haru?” Sumire asked. Futaba giggled.</p><p>“No, I want to kiss girls. They’re… they’re so nice and pretty. I’m not interested in all the other stuff besides basic intimacy, I just want to… hold their hands. Kiss their cheek. Cuddle them, all that, y’know?”</p><p>Sumire nodded. “I get that. For me, it was… well, Kasumi inadvertently opened my eyes to it. She was telling me about a meet that I was forced to miss due to illness, and that there was a girl competing who was just… <em> so pretty </em>. She showed me the video of the performance, and I thought the same thing, that I wanted to just keep looking at her. Since then, I’ve had other thoughts about girls, like you have. Maybe… a little more than you have, but… we’re teenagers, right? It’s only natural.”</p><p>“I understand. I’ve never felt that much about anyone, to be honest. Nothing really more than… the kissing and holding hands and cuddling stuff. All the… other stuff just feels… uncomfortable.” Futaba worried just a little bit that she might be broken. “That’s… that’s also normal, right?”</p><p>“Of course, Futaba.” Despite the dark room, Futaba could see a smile on Sumire’s face, and it reassured her that she was okay.</p><p>They laid there in silence. Futaba’s mind continued to race, relaying events of the day on loop, reminding her that she wouldn’t have had the confidence to do half the things she did without Sumire by her side.</p><p>Maybe a backup key item wasn’t what she wanted Sumire to be.</p><p>“Hey, can I ask you something?” </p><p>“Of course,” Sumire mumbled, definitely sleep deprived.</p><p>“Well… today was a lot of fun. All the things we did, they were the most fun I’ve had in a long time, and I don’t think… I wouldn’t have been able to have that much fun without you. The movie theatre, walking to the cafe, all of it I couldn’t have done without you. So… I wanted to ask if you’ll be my… my key item.”</p><p>“Your key item? Could you elaborate?”</p><p>“Well… whenever I’m with Akira, he helps me to conquer my fears of being in public, in crowds, all that. And today… you helped me a lot with that too. So I wanted to ask if you’d keep doing that for me; helping me conquer my fears and staying by my side.” Futaba was praying to every god she could think of that Sumire would not think she was weird for asking this.</p><p>“Are you… asking me to be your girlfriend?” Sumire asked. Futaba wasn’t amazing at reading inflection, but she definitely heard a smile in Sumire’s voice.</p><p>“Um… maybe? But you don’t have to be! I’m okay if you help me face my fears as friends, I’d just really like to… also be close to you, and… all that.”</p><p>“Well…” Futaba heard rustling, and suddenly Sumire was in her bed next to her. “I wouldn’t mind if we… were girlfriends. I think that would be nice.”</p><p>Futaba was completely silent. Her circuits were absolutely fried. She was in complete euphoria and forgot how to speak or move.</p><p>“Hey… Futaba? Are you… alive?” Sumire sat up and flicked on a light to see if Futaba fell asleep. She waved her hand in front of the girl’s face. “Are you okay?”</p><p>Futaba shook herself out of her daze. “Yep! Sorry, I forgot how to handle all of that excitement and so my wires got overloaded.”</p><p>“So you’re okay?” Futaba nodded. “Okay good. I thought I maybe had hurt your feelings or something and I got worried.”</p><p>“You could never.”</p><p>Sumire turned the lights back off and laid back down next to Futaba. The two girls cuddled closely until they fell asleep, the only light in the room being Futaba’s glow-in-the-dark stars and Futaba’s computer screen, signalling the completion of Sumire’s phone reset.</p><p>They’d both completely forgotten about it.</p>
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